Introducing Olympus & Olympus I/O - A new perspective on modern music playback

[dminches]

Emile, I assume you are pleased with the powdered coated results and the company has orders to produce more?

 

[John T]

Yes the H360 has a different kind of coating with more “texture” , here’s a close up of black:

View attachment 147360

This shows it well. Less obvious in silver than black...

 

[Johan K]

It’s very difficult capturing the difference between coated and anodised accurately on camera.

Coated is mainly slightly more light reflective and a bit of a deeper black:

On the photos:

Lampizator Horizon 360 (coated)
Coated Olympus
Anodised Olympus
MSB Reference (anodised)

View attachment 147343

View attachment 147344

View attachment 147345


View attachment 147346

Send them to me - I won’t charge☝ !!!

/ Jk

 

[wil]

Thanks for the efforts to show the differences!

The Horizon coating looks to be less refined (larger grain than the coated Oly). Is that what you see in person? I prefer the finer grain on the Oly.

But It’s pretty much impossible to show these fine differences without carefully set up identical lighting and a higher resolution camera.

From what I can tell, the coating and anodizing is so close that it would make sense to choose whichever one has the most consistent quality control.

 

[Taiko Audio]

A video captures it best. I’ve uploaded one to wetransfer as if I upload it to youtube it gets compressed too much and the differences disappear:

https://we.tl/t-5ci5TQCBws

 

[DW101]

Thanks for the pics Emile, it's good to hear the powder had such a good success rate. Are we still waiting for silver powder coated samples?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thanks for the efforts to show the differences!

The Horizon coating looks to be less refined (larger grain than the coated Oly). Is that what you see in person? I prefer the finer grain on the Oly.

But It’s pretty much impossible to show these fine differences without carefully set up identical lighting and a higher resolution camera.

From what I can tell, the coating and anodizing is so close that it would make sense to choose whichever one has the most consistent quality control.

The coating on the Horizon is a good pick imho, it gives it a more "retro" vibe, matching well with tubes.

The coating of the Olympus does indeed have a much finer grained texture which matches the Olympus “high tech” design better.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thanks for the pics Emile, it's good to hear the powder had such a good success rate. Are we still waiting for silver powder coated samples?

We have one but it’s a no, the surface isn’t smooth enough and too glossy. They’re going to try something else (coated on the left):

 

[DW101]

Thanks Emile! Fingers crossed they can eventually meet your quality standards..

 

[Taiko Audio]

Emile, I assume you are pleased with the powdered coated results and the company has orders to produce more?

Yes we've send them a double batch. Fingers crossed.

 

[John T]

Thanks for the efforts to show the differences!

The Horizon coating looks to be less refined (larger grain than the coated Oly). Is that what you see in person? I prefer the finer grain on the Oly.

But It’s pretty much impossible to show these fine differences without carefully set up identical lighting and a higher resolution camera.

From what I can tell, the coating and anodizing is so close that it would make sense to choose whichever one has the most consistent quality control.

My preference is silver anodized. If some prefer powder coated, and Taiko wants to offer both, so be it, as long as Taiko can juggle two finishes. Perhaps this is an avenue going forward to clear the backlog...

 

[an.vamv]

@Taiko Audio Any update about the Aries Cerat XDMI daughterboards??

 

[VPN]

Dear customers, dear WBF members,


Dear customers from Hong Kong joining the forum,


I wish your reasons for joining were in better spirits, like sharing your experiences with your Olympus server. Nevertheless, I wish you all a warm welcome here.

Let me start with a recap of what’s been going on to get you up to speed without having to read back the whole thread:

The December 2023 Olympus introduction announcement was met with an overwhelming response, followed by an unprecedented number of orders, not just for us, this would be mayor for virtually any boutique manufacturer, reaching around 150 in just 2 or so weeks! For some context, we have built and shipped around 500 Extreme servers, but spread over a 6 year period. Absolutely incredible and I cannot even begin to express how proud and honoured we all felt and still do.

Of these around 110 ended up being firm orders, the counter is at around 160 right now, but those orders have been placed over the course of 2024, averaging at about 1 a week. We’d have little to no trouble producing 1 Olympus a week, the problem is in the first huge batch of 110. Of these we have now shipped 76 (28 of these with an I/O). We have assigned queue numbers but following those does not give a completely accurate picture, some are double / ordered same time, there are also gaps / unallocated queue numbers of people ending up not committing, etc. Fact is of the initial 110 there are now 34 orders remaining to be fulfilled, which are your, by now, 14-month-old orders.

We have faced, and solved, many issues over the past 14 months producing the Olympus, which have been shared in this forum thread, but 1 remains, being a rate limitation in the anodising / finishing of the Olympus chassis. The company who has been doing our anodising for years did the first few chassis, then refused to continue due to the amount of labour involved. As it turns out, the mechanical size and complexity of the Olympus chassis parts exclude it from automated / robotised finishing. Each part takes 4 hours of (skilled) manual labour to finish, that is 8 hours for an Olympus server, 4 hours for an I/O. Europe being Europe, artisan labour has become a precious, hard to find commodity, let alone in quantity.

Now we did manage to find a company willing to finish the Olympus chassis for us, at an exemplary quality level to boot. The owner of this company is an audiophile, he understands the quality requirements and has been willing to invest the time and energy to work with us. They keep records of every part they finish, the colour is the same, even if you’d switch your aluminium alloy, they can produce the same colour. They are perfect for the job. However, a quick calculation shows a very long time required to get through the backlog. They have 2 skilled labourers (his sons) who can produce this finish quality, but obviously they were already allocated to already existing contracts. They offered to work evenings + Saturdays for the remainder of 2024, with an output of 12 chassis parts a week, 2 people, 4 evenings + Saturdays, being for example 6 servers, or 4 servers and 4 I/Os a week.

Unfortunately, we subsequently ran into the, at the time, unexplainable phenomenon of a high chassis rejection rates, which turned out to be caused by mixing issues / contamination in the raw aluminium blocks. This has been “solved” recently, we’re now at a 15% rejection rate. But in 2024, “only” 180 chassis parts have passed QC and have been shipped in the form of the 76 Olympus servers and 28 I/Os mentioned before.

Although the work-in-overtime deal is over, the anodising company has expanded their facilities over the past few months, ordered and installed additional machinery, and has now offered the same 12 chassis parts (being for example 6 servers, or 4 servers and 4 I/Os a week, and now with a ~15% rejection rate).

Next to this we have found another anodising company and a coating company, both of which look like they can produce the quality we’re after.

As for communication, or lack thereof, we have absolutely been struggling with that. Probably not everybody knows that before the launch of the Olympus, Taiko Audio was largely operated by unpaid volunteers, out of passion. Any profit made was invested in R&D and capabilities, which is probably why it’s said we appear to have been moving faster than some others. @Christiaan Punter was the first (and in 2023 only) (part-time) employee under contract / with a salary. Over time, with a slowly but surely growing customer base, it was already starting to be increasingly difficult to keep up with communication. This however got completely out of control with the Olympus announcement. Leaving us no other choice but to aggressively start hiring people. We now have 11 full time employees on the payroll and have purchased and installed a professional helpdesk/ticketing system. 4.75 of the 11 are currently allocated to customer communication, we are now able to reply e-mail/WhatsApp/text enquiries reasonably fast, and we have now started an e-mail list to provide regular updates to everyone who has ordered an Olympus directly. This staff allocation has to be a temporary measure as our sales do not cover an overhead like that, which is why we are in the process of moving towards supplying exclusively to distributors, outsourcing sales and first line customer support to distributors and their respective dealers.

This has become a somewhat longer post then intended, I hope it clarifies what’s been going on behind the incredible response on the launch of the Olympus and the challenges we’ve had to deal with as a result. We’re fully aware the wait has been excruciating long, I do hope you can muster up a little more patience, I would hate to lose you as a customer.

Dear Emile,

"The December 2023 Olympus introduction announcement was met with an overwhelming response, followed by an unprecedented number of orders, not just for us, this would be mayor for virtually any boutique manufacturer, reaching around 150 in just 2 or so weeks! For some context, we have built and shipped around 500 Extreme servers, but spread over a 6 year period. Absolutely incredible and I cannot even begin to express how proud and honoured we all felt and still do."

From what you said, it seems that in a few months you will have shipped the current queue of orders. I was lucky to have placed order #19 and received my black Olympus Sep 13th. Having lived with the Olympus for several months, I am confident that out of the 500 or so customers that had the Extreme, most, when they have the resources, and maybe the oportunity to listen to the Olympus, will eventually migrate to the Olympus. It is a huge step up.

Cheers,

VPN

 

[nenon]

@nenon has been working on a framework which predicts the expected ship date of each individual order number with input from @JulienVermeiren. This framework accepts input for the amount of chassis delivered each week which in turn updates the expected shipping dates of all order numbers. ETA this week!

@JulienVermeiren just sent an email update with the estimated production schedule.

If you haven’t received his email, please send me a direct message here with your name and order number. I’ll make sure you get a copy of the email and that you're added to the mailing list.

We prefer to share the production schedule privately with those waiting rather than posting it on a public forum.

 

[Benny chung]

@JulienVermeiren just sent an email update with the estimated production schedule.

If you haven’t received his email, please send me a direct message here with your name and order number. I’ll make sure you get a copy of the email and that you're added to the mailing list.

We prefer to share the production schedule privately with those waiting rather than posting it on a public forum.

@JulienVermeiren just sent an email update with the estimated production schedule.

If you haven’t received his email, please send me a direct message here with your name and order number. I’ll make sure you get a copy of the email and that you're added to the mailing list.

We prefer to share the production schedule privately with those waiting rather than posting it on a public forum.

@JulienVermeiren just sent an email update with the estimated production schedule.

If you haven’t received his email, please send me a direct message here with your name and order number. I’ll make sure you get a copy of the email and that you're added to the mailing list.

We prefer to share the production schedule privately with those waiting rather than posting it on a public forum.

Please send me an email

 

[nenon]

Please send me an email

Hi Benny, I used all my creativity and found your email address with the limited access I have to the Taiko's system.
Email forwarded to you, and I requested that you get added to the list, so you should be getting any future updates.

 

[JYACO]

Hi Benny, I used all my creativity and found your email address with the limited access I have to the Taiko's system.
Email forwarded to you, and I requested that you get added to the list, so you should be getting any future updates.

Didn’t receive the email. Please add me to the list.

 

[nenon]

Didn’t receive the email. Please add me to the list.

I will be glad to do. Can I please get your email? You can send me a private message here or email Taiko support - whatever is better for you.
BTW, I also asked your dealer. If he gets back to me first, I will send it right away.

 

[JYACO]

I will be glad to do. Can I please get your email? You can send me a private message here or email Taiko support - whatever is better for you.
BTW, I also asked your dealer. If he gets back to me first, I will send it right away.

Private message sent.

 

[nenon]

We wanted to proactively address a question we've seen coming up frequently:
"Why is my order X estimated to enter assembly later than order Y, even though X < Y?"

The short is answer is because order X is different than order Y. For a more elaborated answer - see below.

Creating these estimates is extremely complex due to many interdependent variables. To illustrate, even ChatGPT, when provided with all our data, responded:
"Unfortunately, due to the extreme complexity and interdependencies, I cannot reliably provide an exact final schedule that meets all constraints."
This underscores the intricacies involved. Currently, even minor updates to the schedule require about four hours of work by me.

Here are just some of the constraints we must factor into our production scheduling:
1. Different chassis finishes:
- Black anodized Olympus chassis
- Black powder-coated Olympus chassis
- Black anodized I/O chassis
- Black powder-coated I/O chassis
- Silver anodized Olympus chassis
- Silver anodized I/O chassis

2. We must predict:
- The exact number of each chassis type arriving and their arrival dates
- How many chassis will pass inspection
- Assembly capacity, factoring in daily fluctuations such as team availability (due to illness, personal days, etc.)

3. Customer preferences add another layer of complexity. Some customers change preferences between silver and black finishes, and others strongly prefer anodized or powder-coated finishes. Some want their unit delivered ASAP. Other have put vacation holds. Some want to wait until balanced analog out is available. It's a really complex task!

Based on our current projections:
- Customers who opted for black powder-coated chassis are slightly ahead of those preferring silver or black anodized chassis.
- Customers with a black powder-coated Olympus chassis without an I/O are slightly ahead of those awaiting an I/O, due to current inventory and production projections for black I/O chassis.

Please note that these estimates may shift back and forth in the coming weeks as new information becomes available. We will continue to provide weekly updates to keep everyone informed.

Lastly, some people have expressed concerns about how long it will take to get to their order. The real goal here is to set realistic expectations, give people timely updates, provide clear communication, and maintain full transparency. That’s all I am trying to do. If you are disappointed that your order is not in Week 1, I am disappointed too. So is Taiko. But as discussed many times, Taiko is at the mercy of external vendors for the chassis finishing, and there is no workaround for that.

We greatly appreciate your understanding and patience as we navigate these complexities to deliver your orders as efficiently as possible.